Re: Giving Tzedakah to Nachriim

Prof. Levine <llevine <at> stevens.edu>
2012-11-19 00:41:27 GMT

At 08:22 AM 11/18/2012, Micha Berger wrote:

On Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at
07:19:40PM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
:
... Clearly if the gentile
: is a ger toshav then there is a mitzvah to give him or her tzedakah
if
: they are in need, and one would presumably get sechar for
this.

Is it possible to have a ger toshav today? We're not simply talking
about
an observant Noachide, but the observant Noachide who agreed to live as
a
citizen in a Jewish Israel. Ger toshav = resident alien, quite
literally.

Medinat Yisrael might qualify; perhaps someone today who came before
beis din in EY and took an oath of loyalty to the Jews in it would
be
a ger toshav. But I think it's more likely that one needs a gov't
that
includes a Sanhedrin to which that court answers.

Does anyone know of a discussion of ger toshav bizman
hazeh?

RSRH writes on pages 379 to 380 of volume 2 of the Horeb that a ger
toshav is "he who expressly accepts those duties [the sheva mitzvos
of a bnei Noach] in the presence of three persons as having been enjoined
upon all men by God in his Revelation to Moses." He makes no
mention of living in Israel.